It's game on in Paterson and Shortland after Prime Minister Scott Morrison arrived in the Hunter on Monday to introduce the two female lawyers he hopes will flip the battleground seats from Labor to Liberal.
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The Newcastle Herald reported in January that family law practitioner Brooke Vitnell was the frontrunner for preselection to take on Paterson MP Meryl Swanson at the looming federal election.
Mr Morrison confirmed Ms Vitnell's candidacy and that of second-time Shortland candidate Nell McGill during his visit.
Ms Vitnell and Ms McGill rarely left the PM's side as he posed for photo opportunities at Tomago engineering firm Ampcontrol, inspected hydrogen-power projects at Newcastle port and attended a "community lunch" at Kahibah Sports Club.
It was Mr Morrison's fifth hi-vised, hard-hatted visit to the Hunter in 18 months.
On one of those trips, in February, he attended a private fundraising dinner for Ms Vitnell, rumoured to cost $10,000 a plate, at the Newcastle Club.
On Monday, he promised more visits to a region he said would "best demonstrate" the nation's efforts to adapt to climate change.
It is a far cry from the 2019 federal election, when Ms McGill and Maitland businessman Sachin Joshi ran relatively low-key campaigns.
Mr Joshi halved Ms Swanson's margin from 10.7 to 5 per cent that year, and Ms McGill had similar success against Labor's Pat Conroy, reducing his breathing room to just 4.4 per cent.
Ms Vitnell, whose husband, Julian Leembruggen, is a long-time media adviser to Mr Morrison, had her debut media speech interrupted by a coal ship's horn on the banks of the harbour, a noisy reminder that energy policy again is at the centre of a Hunter election campaign.
"I'm proud of our working port. That's the Hunter. It's very representative of the backbone and the industry that's put food on the tables and paid the mortgages for thousands of families across this region," she said.
"I feel the Hunter is very much the centre of what's going to be happening in the energy market across the country."
Ms Vitnell repeated the PM's mantra that the government would not be "legislating people out of jobs".
"This will all be done in a way that won't dismantle anybody's industry or affect the livelihood of any Australians, especially those living in the Hunter," she said.
Asked if this amounted to the government dodging responsibility for addressing climate change, she said: "This isn't a set and a forget aspiration. The Productivity Commission will be reviewing every five years ... there will be markers we need to comply with so we're on track to achieve net zero by 2050."
Ms Vitnell, 29, met her husband while working as a staffer in the office of Bob Baldwin, who held Paterson from 2001 until a boundary redistribution in 2015 placed Kurri Kurri in the electorate.
That base is ripe for the picking.
- Paterson candidate Brooke Vitnell
Mr Baldwin did not contest the 2016 election and Ms Swanson won with a swing of 10 per cent, the third largest in Australia.
Paterson, which includes the rapidly growing Maitland area, is probably facing another redistribution after the 2022 election.
Ms Vitnell said the retirement this year of veteran Hunter Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon, who spent the end of his parliamentary career accusing his party of abandoning its working-class base, had left the region "ripe for the picking".
She said "young aspirational Aussies' were moving in and changing Paterson's demographics to what she regarded as Liberal territory.
"They've got their new home. They've got their trailers with their jet skis. They want the family holiday once a year to Fraser Island or to Port Stephens.
"They want more. They're aspirational. They have their own businesses. They're self-employed sparkies or chippies.
"They're hungry, and the Labor party their parents may have supported previously isn't the Labor party that it used to be."
Another notable political aspirant at the Kahibah lunch was the Liberals' Newcastle council lord mayoral candidate Jenny Barrie, who chatted to Mr Morrison in front of the cameras.
In the news
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- Scott Morrison: why backing the Hunter is a key to our net zero plan
- 40 new cases of COVID-19 reported in the Hunter New England health district
- Man expected to face charges over coal protest stunt at Sandgate
- Liberal candidates for Paterson and Shortland announced
- Detectives still searching for person who shot David King at Salt Ash
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